Yes, the will. It won't be right after he retires, but it will be 3-5 years after. The guy won 2 cups with the team, and is arguably the second best player in team history. He'll get his rememberance. Just not right away.

BOSTON -- It was a split-second in a game that contained 5,719 seconds of play filled with intense drama.

In a storyline so improbable that Hollywood might not believe it, the moment in question -- which came deep in the second overtime, just seconds before Patrice Bergeron played the hero yet again for the Boston Bruins -- involved Jaromir Jagr. Yes, the man who made his legend as a brash, young member of the Pittsburgh Penguins but is now likely on the final lap of his Hall of Fame career, far more gray in his beard and far slower on his skates.

But the desire to win, the desire to take one more drink from the Cup he first hoisted more than two decades ago as a member of the Penguins -- after beating the Bruins along the way both times -- has not flickered in the least with age. It still burns fiercely hot, even if it is more buried in the more mature personality that Jagr puts on display these days.

Look at the origins of the play that gave the Bruins a 2-1 victory in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final and a 3-0 stranglehold on the series -- and moved Jagr one victory from a place in the Stanley Cup Final.

Pittsburgh defenseman Deryk Engelland pitched the puck out the defensive zone and Evgeni Malkin -- Pittsburgh's latest brash, young European star, looked poised to claim it and head toward the attacking zone. But somehow, Jagr got his stick in there and came away with the puck, setting in motion a series of passes that will become a part of Bruins lore.

Jagr passed to Brad Marchand, who got separation from the Pittsburgh defense and waits until Bergeron got a step on Brooks Orpik, Pittsburgh's primary shutdown defenseman. Marchand then feathered a perfect pass that Bergeron redirected into the far corner of the net defended so ably all night by Tomas Vokoun.

While everyone will talk about the latest clutch goal by Bergeron, who is entering Tom Brady territory with his postseason heroics, the Bruins were talking about a board battle won by a future Hall of Famer who had no interest in the dirty areas along the walls for the majority of his legendary career.

"He's pretty much a legend, he's a guy that's going to be in the Hall of Fame at some point, and he's doing the little thing right there just to fight for the puck, and you notice that as a teammate," Bergeron said. "It goes a long way, as I said, and we all need to do that."

Bergeron wasn't the only one that noticed -- defenseman Andrew Ference did as well. Ference missed the Bruins' second-round series against the New York Rangers with an injury, but watched as Jagr played a great-but-different game than the one on which the Czech star made his reputation.

The winning play on Wednesday night was just further validation of Jagr's transformation, Ference said.

"He's come a long way, he's changed his game a bit, obviously, not only as the years have gone on, but in coming to our team," Ference said. "I think that guys have a lot of respect about who he was in the past, but I think now we're seeing how hard he pushes himself to be better and how he's not too good to develop into what we need him to be."

On this Boston team, Jagr doesn't need to be a scorer. That mantle has been handed to another Czech, David Krejci, who scored the game's first goal on Wednesday and leads the Stanley Cup Playoffs with nine goals and 21 points. It is a role also occupied by Bergeron.

Jagr just needed to buy into Boston's vision of Jagr.

For the Bruins, Jagr just needs to be responsible when he is on the ice, eat some minutes while making a contribution now and again and embrace the moments as they get bigger and more pressure-packed. It is for those reasons that Boston's general manager, Peter Chiarelli, acquired Jagr from the Dallas Stars two months ago.

"He's pretty much a legend, he's a guy that's going to be in the Hall of Fame at some point, and he's doing the little thing right there just to fight for the puck, and you notice that as a teammate. It goes a long way, as I said, and we all need to do that."-- Patrice Bergeron on Jaromir Jagr

Jagr has been a perfect fit.

"Jags is a future Hall of Famer who has come into our locker room and bought into our system, which is not always an easy thing to do and he has done it and done a great job at that," forward Chris Kelly said.

There was no bigger moment or pressure-packed situation than the Game 3 that hung tensely in the balance for the 56 minutes and 27 seconds after Chris Kunitz tied the game at 1-1 in the second period. Yet Jagr, at age 41, got stronger and stronger as the game advanced.

While others wilted under the physical and mental burden being exacted by the circumstances, Jagr did what was needed. He was the most dangerous player throughout the overtime periods despite being 15 years older than many of the top players in both sides in this series.

Fittingly, in the end, he was rewarded for all the under-the-radar effort he produced across his defining night as a Bruin.

"He made a couple of huge plays grounding it out along the wall," Ference said. "That's not going to make any of his highlight reels when he goes into the Hall of Fame, but those are huge plays to win hockey games for us."

At least not until the one player on the Boston side who can lay legitimate claim to greatness did what he's done his entire brilliant career.

Jaromir Jagr got it done.

Even at age 41, even after being banged off his skates several times, even after looking so terribly tired much of the series, he somehow burst onto the ice for double-overtime with the freshest-looking legs of anyone. He looked more dangerous than anyone.

That's a testament to his outrageous conditioning regimen, but those who watched him for a decade in Pittsburgh — not this generation that knows him only for choosing the hated Flyers, but the one that loved the second-greatest player in franchise history — they had to know there was more to it.

This was Jagr's time. The big time.

This was always when he's gotten it done, owner of 78 career playoff goals, including an incredible five in overtime, something Mario Lemieux and Mark Messier — bona fide postseason legends both — never achieved once. He's also got 17 regular-season OT goals, the NHL standard-bearer there.

“He's a great player, and you never can forget that,” Patrice Bergeron said minutes after his goal ended it all at 12:13 a.m. “He knows how and when to step up.”

Here's how he did … Malkin took his first stride toward the Boston zone along the right boards near center red, and Jagr came hard from behind. (All the backchecking Jagr did all night was something no Pittsburgh fan would recall, of course, but times change.) Jagr used his stick to give Malkin a tug and regained the puck, whirling to turn play the other way.

Was it a hook?

Maybe.

Would any referee at any level of hockey have called it in double-overtime, when it only resulted in a change of possession in the neutral zone?

Not a chance.

Neither Malkin nor Jagr spoke with the media afterward, so we can only guess at how they saw it.

Anyway, Jagr pushed the puck up to a racing Brad Marchand for a two-on-two, and a great player had started a great play. Marchand couldn't quite get around a smartly backpedaling Deryk Engelland (who wouldn't win a footrace with Boston's fastest skater), but he passed laterally to Bergeron (who was covered equally tightly by a visibly wounded Brooks Orpik), and Bergeron deftly redirected it just inside the far post behind Tomas Vokoun (the best player on either team).

It was definitely a non-call that the puck carrier has to protect himself from in double OT. Whatever the result of this spring is, Geno needs to learn how to play safer hockey. That wasn't his only bad play in the playoffs. I think starting the season in Russia, where he could do whatever he wanted, hurt his NHL game this season.

Desiato wrote:I think starting the season in Russia, where he could do whatever he wanted, hurt his NHL game this season.

Maybe. But I think it has more to do with having a rotating cast of untouchables on his LW all season, that he feels like he has to do it all himself. The few games where he had 14 or 10 on his LW, that line instantly looked like the dominant line we saw last year.

The Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman, sitting at his locker after practice Wednesday, turned around, smiled and shrugged. Orpik's Penguins start the Eastern Conference finals against Jagr and the Boston Bruins on Saturday night. At 41, Jagr is with his fourth team (sixth if you count the Russian and Czech leagues) since the Penguins traded him to the Washington Capitals in 2001. The divorce wasn't pretty, and the aftermath has been, in a word, weird—two summers ago, Jagr nearly wound up in the Pens' locker room in the flesh.

He still carries enough weight with the Penguins organization (#JagrWatch or not) to be part of the ring of Penguins greats pictured above the current roster's stalls at Consol Energy Center. His portrait looms over Orpik—moreso Mark Eaton, but whatever—and his return to the home of the franchise that drafted him in 1990, summarily won two Stanley Cups, then watched him grow into the best player in the league will be a story line for the second consecutive postseason.

BRUINS-PENGUINS: Matchups to watch | Schedule | The Iginla issue

— Matt Cooke hears the questions—and he has no choice

Jagr's still in the league because he loves the game and takes better care of his body than, effectively, anyone. He's not scoring goals, but he is generating possession and chances along with linemates Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. As was the reported case in New York, Philadelphia and Dallas, he also has been a positive force in the locker room. Bruins coach Claude Julien called him "nothing but a great asset" on Tuesday, and there are plenty of stories circulating about his dedication to fitness; in Philadelphia, he had a key to the training facility so he could work out on his own, and in Dallas, he lived in a mid-range hotel because it was close to the practice rink.

"I'm just amazed that he's still playing, to be honest," Orpik, who's 32 himself, said. "I remember growing up watching him and playing with him in video games. Especially the way he plays. He takes a lot of abuse. I'm just amazed at the level he still plays at. I think it's come full circle for him. We played him last year with Philly, though, so nothing new for us."

"I'm sure it's always a little more weird for him coming into town."

Naturally, Jagr says both that he didn't expect to find himself in this position—"If (anyone told me), they would be dead right now."—and that returning to Pittsburgh isn't a huge deal.

"A lot of people still remind me of that, but don't forget it happened 13 years ago the last time I played for them," Jagr told reporters in Boston on Tuesday. "It's a long time, and 23 years ago was my first game, so it's so many years between that, and I've played for a lot of other teams."

Indeed. But he's still a Penguin, first, foremost and forever, in the eyes of most. And while a tour of the arena isn't exactly filled with mullet shots or jars of commemorative peanut butter, the reminders don't stop above Orpik's locker. The fact there's any is proof of how important he was; the fact there aren't more show how bizarre the situation remains.

MEDIA LEVEL

In the press box, photographs and newspaper covers of the franchise's best moments line the walls. In all, there are a few dozen. The displays run heavy on Mario Lemieux and Sidney Crosby, understandably, and the collection of framed photos once you get off the elevators are Jagr-less.

Walk a little further, and you get to the Pittsburgh Press, Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review covers. This is where you'd expect to see more of him—maybe after Game 7 of the 1999 Eastern Conference semifinals against the New Jersey Devils. The only real sign of his post-/pre-Lemieux run of late-90s dominance, though, are two covers featuring his 1999 Hart Trophy win. Lemieux had closed on a deal to buy the team out of bankruptcy earlier that day.

If you look closely, a few reminders pop up. But even those, with hindsight, forecast the ugly, initial split. Darius Kasparaitis scored a goal to beat the Buffalo Sabres in Game 7 of the 2001 Eastern Conference semifinals and postpone Jagr's inevitable departure. That fact wasn't lost on then-Post-Gazette columnist Bob Smizik—and it ran on the front page of the section, overtime goal or not.

Jagr, as quoted in that story: "Of course, (the memories will) be great. Lot of great guys, we won two Stanley Cups, we had a lot of success, we had a lot of fun. I don't think it will be as much fun somewhere else. But every story has to end one day."

It ended July 11, after a season that featured the infamous "dying alive" quote, and then Lemieux's return to the game. The team was still in major financial distress and needed to offload the two years and $20 million left on his contract, but, as tends to be the case with Jagr, it wasn't that simple.

CONCOURSES

From here, it's less about what you see than what you don't. Lemieux's number is hanging from the rafters. Jagr's isn't—and it might never. The summer of 2011, when he returned from the KHL and chose the Flyers after a feverish, bizarre set of negotiations with the Penguins, may have kneecapped any chance of that happening.

ENTRANCES

The most obvious set of reminders stand near the arena's highest-trafficked point. At what's called the Trib Total Media gate, there's a bank of video displays honoring important players, coaches and executives from the franchise's history.

One of those belongs to Jagr—and it's the only that features an active player. The displays are lined up numerically, which puts him next to Lemieux. No. 68 has openly called No. 66 his hero, which, at times, has only made things more confusing. That wasn't enough to bring him back two years ago, and it wasn't enough to keep him around 10 years before that.

Asked if there's any Jagr stuff to be had, an employee smiles. "We don't have anything like that."

Maybe someday. Stranger things have happened, and when it involves Jagr and the Penguins, nothing is impossible. Just ask Orpik—or check out the wall outside the locker room.